Sermon 11, On Candlemas
Church tradition retains many things similar to those that were done, though which it also represents the truth of the things that were done and incites the hearts of the simple to piety, so that they may be carried to a love of internal things by those things that are honored externally. This is the reason that we erect crosses in the church as a recollection of the Lord’s passion, or erect banners in the prominent areas of the church on celebration of the Ascension, as if we are placing them up on a triumphal arch, signifying the triumph of Christ, or recall the miracles or martyrdoms of the saints through the representation of a picture. This has grown from such a custom to the point that, on today’s feast, the faithful process to the church with wax candles and offer them, after they are blessed, to the priests during the solemnities of the Masses. For Your Fraternity knows that, according to the history of the Gospel, our Lord Jesus, on the fortieth day after his birth, that is, today, was brought to the temple by his parents, and there was received by the holy Simeon and blessed and presented in the temple [cf. Lk 2:25-28].
It is this that the holy Church signifies on today’s feast. For just as the holy Simeon received weakness in his hands but recognized the majesty within, which illumines the internal shadows of our unfaithfulness: thus each of the faithful, representing this sacrament, carries wax in his hands, as if frail flesh, but sees that a light is being carried which illumines the shadows of the surrounding air[cf. Jn 1:5]. For just as the flesh of Christ proceeds from flesh filled with the most clean and good fragrance of virtues, he did not violate the wholeness of his mother either in conception or delivery. Thus the wax which is carried today by the hands of the faithful, collected from clean and fragrant flowers, is the fruit of the bee, namely the living virgin, as it is read, whose sex the males do not violate, and whose offspring they do not shake [1]. Therefore, since we carry it with this meaning, let us carry Christ in our mouth, let us carry Christ in our heart, let us carry Christ in our hands, so that we may deserve to depart in peace and to see the salvation of God together with holy Simeon.
Do you wish to know how you might carry Christ in your mouth? He said concerning himself: I am the truth [Jn 14:6]. Let the truth, therefore, be in your mouth, and let falsehood be absent; let gossip and profanity be absent [cf. 2 Tim 2:16], and Christ will be in your mouth. Let love be in your heart, and Christ will be there. For thus says John in his epistle: God is love, and he who remains in love, remains in God, and God in him [I Jn 4:16]. Let innocence be in your works, so that you might detract from no one. Let there be justice, so that grant to each one what is his, and you will have Christ in your hands. For He Himself was made for us of God both justification and justice [I Cor 1:30]. Therefore carry Him with you to the church, and carry Him back with you, and you will have Christ with you. For thus does the holy apostle Paul warn: You are bought for a great price; glorify and bear God in your body [I Cor 6:20].
What is it to carry God? It is to represent the image of God, to imitate Christ. Innocence carries this image, justice carries it, truth carries it, chastity carries it, sobriety carries it, and all honesty. For just as we carried the image of the earthly, let us also carry the image of the celestial [cf. I Cor. 15:49]. Placing aside the sordid affairs of the old man, let us cast away the works of the shadows, and let us train ourselves in the works of the light, so that those who see our good works may glorify our Father, who is in heaven [Mt 5:16]. Let us furnish the house of our heart with these decorations of the virtues, so that we may be able to have God as an inhabitant. Thus the holy church is taught today in the figure of a bride: Adorn your bridal chamber, Sion, and receive Christ, the king of kings [2].
This teaching desires the ornaments of habits, not the covering garments of the walls, so that the Lord may rest as a lover in the holy habits of a pure mind, just as the bridegroom rests with delight in a decorated bridal chamber. Whence also in the Gospel we are commanded to gird our loins, that is, to restrain the loose parts of the flesh, and to have lamps in our hands, that is, to show examples of light to our neighbors, so that we might be found ready to enter into the feast of the heavenly bridegroom and to rejoice with Him without end [cf. Lk 12:35] May our Lord Jesus Christ deign to make this available for us, He who condescended to be born in time, so that we may be able to be born again through Him in eternity.
[1] Taken from the Exultet of Good Saturday. See the note in the introduction to this translation.
[2] Taken from an antiphon used in the procession for the feast. See the note in the introduction to this translation.
SERMO XI. In Purificatione S. Mariae, Patrologia Latina 162.0575D-577A
Consuetudo ecclesiastica multas ex rebus gestis retinet similitudines, quibus et rerum gestarum repraesentat veritatem, et simplicium corda excitat ad pietatem, ut per ea quae foris venerantur, ad internorum amorem rapiantur. Hinc est quod ad recordationem Dominicae passionis in Ecclesia cruces erigimus, quod tempore Ascensionis vexilla, triumphum Christi significantia, in eminentiori loco ecclesiae, tanquam in arcu triumphali sublimamus, quod sanctorum miracula, vel martyria picturae imaginatione recordamur. Ex hujusmodi consuetudine hoc inolevit, ut hodierna festivitate fideles populi cum cereis luminaribus ad ecclesiam procedant. Et eadem benedicta in missarum solemnitatibus sacerdotibus offerant. Novit enim vestra fraternitas, quod secundum evangelicam historiam Dominus Jesus quadragesima die a nativitate sua, hoc est, hodie a parentibus in templum est delatus, et ibi a sancto Simeone susceptus, et benedictus in templo est praesentatus (Luc. II).
Hoc hodierna festivitate sancta repraesentat Ecclesia. Sicut enim sanctus Simeo in manibus accepit infirmitatem, sed intus agnovit majestatem, infidelitatis nostrae tenebras interiores illustrantem: sic quisque fidelis hoc sacramentum repraesentans, ceram in manibus portat, quasi carnem fragilem, sed superferri videt lucem, exteriores hujus aeris tenebras illuminantem (Joan. IV). Sicut enim caro Christi de mundissimo et bono odore virtutum referta carne processit, et nec in concipiendo, nec in egrediendo matris integritatem violavit: sic cera quae hodie gestatur fidelium manibus, de mundis et odoriferis floribus collecta, fructus est apis, virginis videlicet animantis, cujus, sicut legitur, sexum nec masculi violant, nec fetus quassant. Cum ergo eam sub hac significatione portamus, Christum portemus in ore, Christum portemus in corde, Christum portemus in manibus, ut dimissi in pace, cum Simeone sancto salutare Dei videre mereamur.
Vultis scire quomodo Christum portetis in ore? Ipse de se dicit: «Ego sum veritas (Joan. XIV).» Sit ergo in ore vestro veritas, absit falsitas, absint vaniloquia, et turpiloquia, et erit in ore vestro Christus. Sit in corde vestro charitas, et erit ibi Christus. Sic enim dicit in Epistola sua Joannes: «Deus charitas est: et qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo (I Joan. IV).» Sit in operibus vestris innocentia, ut nemini quidquam suum auferatis. Sit justitia, ut cuique quod suum est, tribuatis, et habebitis in manibus Christum. Ipse enim nobis factus est a Deo, et justificatio et justitia (I Cor. I) Hunc ergo vobiscum ad ecclesiam apportate, hunc vobiscum reportate: et habebitis Christum vobiscum. Sic enim monet sanctus apostolus Paulus: «Empti estis pretio magno, glorificate et portate Deum in corpore vestro (I Cor. VI).»
Quid est Deum portare? Imaginem Dei repraesentare, Christum imitari. Hanc imaginem portat innocentia, portat justitia, hanc portat veritas, hanc portat castitas, hanc portat sobrietas, et omnis honestas. Sicut enim portavimus imaginem terreni, portemus et imaginem coelestis (I Cor. XV). Deponentes ergo veteris hominis lutulenta negotia, abjiciamus opera tenebrarum, et exerceamus nos in operibus lucis, ut videntes opera nostra bona, glorificent patrem nostrum, qui in coelis est (Matth. V). His virtutum ornamentis exornemus domum cordis nostri, ut Deum inhabitatorem habere possimus. Sic enim hodie sub typo sponsae sancta monetur Ecclesia: Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion, et suscipe regem regum Christum.
Admonitio ista, ornamenta desiderat morum, non palliata vestimenta murorum, ut in sanctis moribus castae mentis amator requiescat Dominus, sicut in ornato thalamo delectabiliter requiescit sponsus. Unde etiam in Evangelio (Luc. XII), jubemur lumbos praecingere, id est carnis fluxa frenare, et lucernas in manibus tenere, id est, proximis lucis exempla monstrare, ut parati inveniamur convivio coelestis sponsi interesse, et cum eo sine fine gaudere. Quod nobis misericorditer praestare dignetur Jesus Christus Dominus noster, qui pro nobis dignatus est temporaliter nasci, ut per eum possimus in aeternitate renasci.
For those interested in my translating principals, see my translator’s preface.
Nick Kamas
PhD in Medieval Studies
University of Notre Dame